THE HESPER 1A N.
S
and displayed many noble qualities during her wonderful
career; her nature was the strong, self reliant sort, that calls
forth admiration from all. She had an active brain that
planned, and an indefatigable energy that prosecuted all her
plans. She and her work bring the best side of the theatre
into light. Hut, though conceding her brilliancy, noble
traits, etc., we cannot help inquiring "What did she accomp
lish by her life work?" Those who merit fame deserve it
through some deed for the accomplishment of the elevation
of mankind, socially, intellectually or morally. Though
small the deed seemingly, and few those who remember it,
the result of a worthy life always remains it can never be
lost if devoted to some worthy purose. What was Charlotte
Cushman's purpose? We know that she afforded amusement j
for thousands of people in two hemispheres. Did she do!
them any good? Did her wonderful acting lift them into a
higher plane of thought and action? The testimonies from
the lips and pens of her warmest friends and most cultivated
admirers convince us that she was a woman of strong mag
netic power a great sensationalist. She made men weep and
hold their breath, thrilled them with terror; and she did this,
not by the thoughts to which she gave utterance but by the
intensity of her own feeling. But what was all this to soci
ety? It was mere sensationalism, the effect of which lasted
during the evening to be shaken off and afterward forgotten
and when the excited sensibilities arc soothed, no influence
cmaincd. They found in her acting, what listless souls seek
in sensational novels, and if this may be said of the queen o'
the stage, is it not true of all the rest of actors and actresses,
only in a greater degree? Apologists for the drama often
boast that great actors do good by interpreting and impress
ing upon thoughtless minds great ideas, but in noticing the
confessions of Miss Cushman's admirers we find that they do
no such things. Like sensational novel reading, they cause
abnormal agitation of the emotions. They aim at this
excitement, not as a means of moving its subjects to noble
actions, but as one end.
She often said sadly, "What is or can be the record of an
actress, however famous? They leave nothing behind them
but the vaquest of memories. Ask any member of persons to
give a real picture of the effect produced by any great actor,
and they can tell you nothing more than that it was grandj
it was overwhelming; but ask them, How did he render
such and such a passage?' and they are at once at a loss. It
is all gone, passed away. Other artists produce something
which lives after them and enshrines their memories in posi"
live evidence of their divine nission, but we we strut and
fret our hour on the stage and then the curtain falls, and all
is darkness and silence!"
AN OCEAN VOYAGE.
Extracts from an esauy read by 11. O. l'ulereou beloro tho Uiilver
shy Uulou.l
After a few days' the storm subsided and the passengers
gradually appeared on deck, pale and gaunt but determined
to enjoy themselves now that their seasick state had passed;
still as the novelty wore away, the time passed very slowly.
Nothing to see but water, water, everywhere, nothing but
the same boundless, interminable space and as wc got farlhei
north not a ship, not a fish. It is impossible to imagine the
loneliness, the feeling of utter desolation which siezed us.
Nothing but a speck upon the vast circular plane a id above us
that blue, seemingly air-tight dome, which, like a huge cap.
closed down over lis and formed our prison. On pleasant
days we stretched out on the forecastle and threw dice for
soda-water and played cards or slept; but on stormy days we
huddled together in the cabin and told stories, read, slept and
tried everything to make time pass. Occasionally
in the evening wc indulged in a dance to the music of a wheezy
accordion or as we got further north tramped in procession up
and down the deck to keep warm, but in the day time we
were too lazy for even this. The only thing which wc prac
ticed with avidity was eating; and such appetites as we had;
Hrcaklast, dinner and supper sufficed as much to stay our ap
petites as a spoonful of dirt would suffice to fill Lake Michi
gan. Each hour was ushered in with a meal. We ate upon
awakening, ate upon going to bed, ate in bed, in our sleep,
arose in the middle of the night to cat and still managed here
and there to take a bite between times. As the days passed
wc entered the "Land of the Midnight Sun." The sun did not
set until io o'clock and rose at 2 o'clock leaving but a short
n ight and consequently but a short time to hunger.
Having left in our wake the flat sand plain and stone light
house which marks the northernmost part of Scotland we
came in sight the next morning of Norway's coast. Wc
sailed along within half a mile of the shore and on our right
was that same hated circle while on our left was some of the
finest scenery in the world. The waves rippled on a beach
of the whitest sand bordered by fields of grass. Cattle grazed
peacefully almost to the water's edge, and through the hazy
mist rising in the early morning from the dewy grass, milk
maids, clad in strange costumes with snow-white caps and
aprons, were seen passing among them and drawing the
morning's milk. Suddenly the sun rose and as the mists
rolled away,the old hoary mountains, tinged with gold, loomed
up in the rear covered with aged pines among whose massive
trunks scintillated the radiant sunbeams. Nestled deeply in
the recesses among the old pines lay the small farmhouses
with their little square windows, red roofs and white walls;
while the smoke, rising from the chimneys and wafted away
on the morning breeze, told of the life within. Do you wond
er that the Scandinavians are a sombre race, that their heath
en religion was stern and unrelenting like their land; that
Odin, Allfather, was represented to them in one of their
mountains, his hair white like the eternal snows on the sum
mit, his limbs strong and rugged like its prcipices, his throne
like its base fast and enduring throughout all ages, and until
"ragnarok," covering all nations with its protection? Do
you wonder that nourished as they were in that harsh land
with its everlasting snow and its long cold winters wherein
the sun never sets, accustomed from childhood to battle with
the snow storm and avalanche, that they hesitated not to push
their Viking ships accross the ocean? As we ap.
proached Christiansand the mountains became more barren,
and at last were nothing but rocks, gray and solemn, without
a bush or shrub, but scarred and delapidated by the winds
and snowstorms of centuries. As we started up Christian
sand Fjord the speed was slackened and our ship picked her
way slowly and cautiously through the network of waterways.
To the right and left as far as sight reached the water was
dotted with thousands of rocks and islands among which the
staunch vessel slowly passed. Now we sailed through nar
row gloomy passages where the rocks almost within reach rose
steep as walls to a hight ol 400 feet above our heads ; then we
entered a circular lake nearly surrounded by pine-covered
rocks through which no outlet appeared. Hut as we ap
proached, the ship, like a living thing, searched out an open
ing and went squeezing her way into open water beyond.
For an hour this twisting turning, and dodging among the
rocks was continued when at last, in a narrow passage, our
way seemed barred by a black rockwall past which no way
appeared. Still the ship kept on nearer and nearer until she
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